Infirmity And Righteousness

Humanum dico propter infirmitatem vestram. Prudens verbi dispensator in prima eos forma doctrinae videns profecisse, humana sicut hominibus censet esse committenda, cum divina mallet, si supra hominem aliquantulum eos profecisse adverteret. Humanum, inquit, quod potestis portatre, dico. Quando exhibuistis membra vestra iniquitati ad flagita perpetranda, timor vos ducebat ad peccatura, an suavitas peccati? Respondebitis, suavitas. Ad peccatum ergo suavitas ducit; ad justitiam vero timor impingit? Hoc inhumanum est. Potius humanum est, ut sicut hoc, sic et illud. Sicut in vobis fuit haectenus libido voluptasque peccati; sic amodo delectatio sit, charitasque justitiae. Et haec quidem nondum videtur perfecta, sed quodammodo adulta justitia. Plus quippe servitutis debetur justitiae quam peccato solent homines exhibere. Nam poena corporis etsi non a voluntate, tamen revocat ab opere peccati; justitia vero sic amanda est, ut ejus operibus etiam poena corporis cohibere non debeat. Sicut ergo ille est iniquissimus, quem nec poenae corporales deterrent ab immundi operibus sordidae voluptatis; ita illo justissimus, qui nec poenarum corporalium terrore revocatur a sanctis operibus luminosae charitatis. Sed humana tibi dico, o homo: Ama justitiam, sicut amasti iniquitatem. In iniquitate secutus es voluptatem; pro justitia tolera persecutionem. Ventum est ad aspera, horrenda, truculenta, minantia; calca, frange et transi. O amare, o ire, o sibi perire, O ad Deum pervenire. Qui amat animam suam perdet eam, et qui perdiderit animam suam propter me, in vitam aeternam inveniet eam. Sic amandus est amator justitiae: sic amandus est amator invisibilis pulchritudinis. Guillelmus S Theodorici Abbas, Expositio In Epistolam Ad Romanos, Liber IV, Cap VI Source: Migne PG 180.610b-d

I speak in human terms on account of your infirmity... 1 The prudent dispensor of words seeing that they had advanced in the first manner of teaching, judges that human things must be committed to men, when he would prefer Divine things, if he had reckoned them to have advanced a little beyond the man. Human things, he says, which you are able to bear, I speak. When you exhibited your members to iniquity for the commission of crimes, did fear lead you to sin, or was it sweetness? You will answer, sweetness. Therefore sweetness leads to sin, fear drives to righteousness? This is inhuman. Rather it is human that they be reversed. As in you there was this desire and pleasure of sin, so may there be a delight in charity and righteousness. And yet this does not yet seem to be a perfect but merely a developed righteousness. Certainly it should be that men are more accustomed to exhibit the service of righteousness than sin. For the punishment of the body, even if it is not a matter of choice, yet withdraws one from the works of sin, righteousness, however, must be loved so much that even the punishment of the body does not restrain one from its works. So he is most iniquitous whom the punishments of the body do not deter from the filth of foul deeds, as he is most righteous who the terror of corporeal punishment does not call back from the holy work of illustrious charity. But I speak human things to you, O man. Love righteousness, as you have loved iniquity. In iniquity you followed pleasure; for righteousness endure persecution. When it comes to bitterness, to terror, hostility, threats, tread it under foot, crush it, and pass on. O to love, O to go on, O to lose oneself, O to come to God. He who loves his own soul shall lose it, and he who loses his own soul for me, he shall find it in eternal life. 2 So loveable is the lover of righteousness, so loveable is the the lover of beauty unseen. William of St Thierry, Commentary on Romans, Book 4 Chap 6 1 Rom 6.19 2 Mt 10.39, Jn 12.25